The Dominion FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1908. PUBLIC OPINION AND STRIKES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 270, 7 August 1908, Page 6

The Dominion FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1908. PUBLIC OPINION AND STRIKES.

The collapse of the tramways strike in Sydney was responsible for a number of useful and interesting articles,in the Sydney Press. . Ono of the best of these appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, on Saturday last, under the heading " Publie Opinion," and it is well worth the attention of the labour community in this country. Our contemporary estimates that the force of trades unionism that might havo backed the strikers was an army of 80,000 men; yet this formidable body of opinion abstained from conflict with the community. What, asks the Herald, was the restraining force? It was " none other than that impalpable, intangible thing called public opinion," exerting a pressure, not only from without the unions, but also from within. That thqusands of passion-inflamed and mutinous men, the argument proceeds, could be coerced back to the path of duty without even a physical blow, in any significant sense, being struck is the chiefest guarantee against the excesses which seem to bo inevitable results of the political tendencies of the time. As in New Zealand, so in New South Wales there is a growing party which aims at tho nationalisation of all industry. ■■ Tho Iltrald accordingly speculates as to what would happen if the employees of the Stato numbered half or more of the total population, and if they decided to force the State into compliance with their demands. 1

'This is a, consideration deserving somo notico from the people who in this country see in socialised industry a remedy, not only for the inequalities of fortune, but also for the dissensions between man and' man, and class and ' 111 tho tot as the Utrald .well obsorvoe^

the worker, in exchanging the State for the private employer, does not secure freedom from all griovanco. He , has merely changed his master. In the event of a revolt, one of two'things must happen. Either the rebels must overcome their employer, the State, in which case " the Socialistic idea would sink out of sight in anarchic confusion," or else the State, which can scourge with scorpions where the private employer has-not even a whip, will triumph over the men. In this case, how is the worker better off 1 He has lost his private freedom in subjection to an official bureaucracy. This is a point to which the workers of New Zealand, who arc being hoodwinked by a section' of the trades union leaders, should devote some careful thought. Our Sydney contemporary thinks that the public opinion " which is the saving clause against foolish excess in society as it is constituted to-day " will be the barrier to the succcss of. the Socialistic movement. It would bo more accurate to say that it is the common sense which lies with a sense of justice and order at the heart of public opinion that will save the country from the wreckers. But that is another question. What is more immediately necessary is that trades unionism should realiso that whatever success it may record in its attacks upon a body of private employers—which may be considerable when, as in New Zealand, the Government is ready to tear down any law that stands in trades unionism's way —it is quite another matter when it rises up against the public as a whole. A Labour revolt can never be more than a sectional movement against what the Herald calls " the summarised common sense and reason of the community as a whole." That it is not superfluous to offer this counsel to Labour here "will be readily > admitted by everyone who has observed the many recent signs that the trades union agitators hive mistaken the pusillanimity of the Government during the past year of industrial disturbance for a reflection of public opinion upon labour lawlessness. Let there be a large strike seriously affecting the comfort and well-being of the whole community, and public opinion will force the Government to break the revolt, or, if it will not, to give way to a Government that will.